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Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Confetti Quilt | Fat Quarterly Issue 5

I spent much of my Quilt Dad hiatus tending to the care & feeding of the Fat Quarterly blog as we prepared for and launched Issue #5. This issue is all about pre-cut fabrics -- you know, charm packs, jelly rolls, ten squares, fat quarter bundles, roll-ups, layer cakes and the like. I know I'm biased, but I think it's our best issue yet. Fat Quarterly is really hitting its stride, and though it's a ton of work, I'm having a blast being part of the team and building the brand from scratch!

My original pattern for the issue is a quilt that I decided to name "Confetti". I was itching to make something with my friend Aneela's Sherbet Pips line for Moda, and was thrilled to discover that the colors coordinate beautifully with some of the prints from Basic Grey's Blush line. (Some of these prints are getting hard to find -- trust me, I'm trying! -- so try to score some if you like the way they look with the Pips, like I do.)

Why "confetti"? Well, the design that emerged as I cut up charm squares into alternating sizes of rectangles and squares reminded me of confetti falling down against the backdrop of the Blush prints. Plus, it's just a really fun quilt, and there aren't many words more fun to say or spell than confetti!

As you can see in the picture above, I backed the quilt in a solid charcoal Kona fabric, my first time making a quilt with a solid backing. I quite like it. I also quilted this large throw quilt myself, keeping it simple with some straight horizontal lines.

I'm SO happy to report that this quilt is already getting lots of love and use in our home, jumping from one kid's bed to another!

This was the first pattern I tried out in the new issue, and I have to say, that even tho mine turned out differently as far as "confetti" goes, it is a great easy way to join up a whole bunch of related but not matched type of fabrics.

I'm really loving this pattern of yours! I have a few baby quilts to make, so I am definitely going to use it for at least one of them! Still debating on what fabric to use...one is for a girl and one is for a boy...

Still haven't checked out Fat Quarterly- its on my list ;) Love this quilt- love that print in the blush line. And I love the solid charcoal backing- I'm making something as we speak using a lot of charcoal and its such a break from my normal white sashing- I'm loving it!

John, I always love the look of your bindings. Could you do a little tutorial on how you cut and attach your binding. What width strip to you use, strait vs bias, and how you actually attch the darn thing?!